UC-NRLF 


GIFT   OF 


THE   PHILIPPINE   ISLANDS 


AN     ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE 


STATE  OF  NEW-YORK 


APRIL  21st,  1904, 


HON.  WILLIAM  H.  TAFT, 


Secretary  of  War. 


NEW-YORK 
1904. 


THE   PHILIPPINE   ISLANDS. 


AN     ADDRESS 


DELIVERED   BEFORE   THE 


CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE 


STATE  OF  NEW-YORK, 


APRIL  21st,  19O4, 


HON.  WILLIAM  H.  TAFT. 


Secretary  of  War. 


NEW- YORK 
19O4. 


9fr 


ADDRESS. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  New-  York: 

Your  President,  Mr.  JESUP,  has  been  good  enough  to  invite 
me  to  address  you.  I  should  have  declined  the  invitation  be- 
cause of  many  other  engagements,  but  for  the  opportunity 
which  it  gives  me  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  solid  busi- 
ness men  of  New-York  the  problem  which  we  have  on  our 
hands  in  the  Philippines. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  have  under  their  guidance 
and  control  in  the  Philippines  an  archipelago  of  3,000  islands, 
the  population  of  which  is  about  7,600,000  souls.  Of  these, 
7,000,000  are  Christians  and  600,000  are  Moros  or  other  Pagan 
tribes.  The  problem  of  the  government  of  the  Moros  is  the 
same  as  that  which  England  has  had  in  the  government  of  the 
Straits  Settlements  or  India.  The  government  of  7,000,000 
Christian  Filipinos  is  a  very  different  problem,  and  one  which 
it  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  United  States  only  to  solve. 

The  attitude  of  the  American  people  toward  the  Philippine 
Islands  may  be  described  as  follows:  There  are  those  who 
think  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  forbids  our  accept- 
ing or  maintaining  sovereignty  over  them ;  there  are  those 
who,  without  respect  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  be- 
lieve that  colonial  possessions  are  likely  to  lead  to  expense 
and  corruption  and  demoralization,  have  little  faith  in  the  so- 
lution of  the  problem  by  teaching  the  Filipino  the  art  of  self- 
government,  and  are  anxious  to  get  rid  of  the  Islands  before 
they  have  done  any  harm  to  the  United  States;  then  there  are 
those  who  hold  that  fate  brought  these  Islands  under  our  con- 
trol, and  that  thus  a  duty  was  imposed  upon  us  of  seeing  to  it 
that  they  were  not  injured  by  the  transfer.  As  a  friend  of  the 
Hlipiiius,  it  is  my  anxious  desire  to  enlarge  that  class  of 
Americans  who  have  a  real  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  Is- 
lands and  who  believe  that  the  United  States  can  have  no 
higher  duty  or  function  than  to  assist  the  people  of  the  Islands 


380481 


to  prosperity  and  a  political  development  which  shall  enable 
them  to  secure  to  themselves  the  enjoyment  of  civil  liberty. 
[Applause.]  The  war  with  Spain  led  us  far  from  Cuba,  whose 
condition  was  its  cause,  to  these  beautiful  Islands  in  the  ori- 
ental tropics.  After  DEWKV'S  guns  had  brought  the  whole 
Archipelago  potentially  within  American  control,  there  was  no 
escape  from  the  dilemma  which  was  then  and  thereafter  pre- 
sented to  the  people  of  the  United  States  except  the  one  which 
they  took.  Three  courses  were  suggested;  first,  that  after 
peace  with  Spain,  we  should  turn  the  Islands  back  to  her.  But 
in  the  legitimate  course  of  the  campaign,  we  had  called  to  our 
assistance  as  allies  AGUINALDO  and  his  forces,  with  whom  the 
people  of  the  Islands  were  largely  in  sympathy.  It  would 
have  been  a  breach  of  faith  on  our  part  to  have  delivered  them 
over  to  Spain  with  the  bloody  conflict  which  would  instantly 
have  followed.  Could  we  have  delivered  the  Islands  over  to 
the  Government  of  AGUINALDO?  AGUINALDO'S  Government 
was  a  military  dictatorship,  having  actual  control  and  that 
not  always  complete,  in  from  eight  or  ten  of  forty  provinces. 
A  convention  had  been  called  of  AGUINALDO'S  friends.  A 
large  majority  of  the  delegates  had  been  directly  appointed  by 
him.  They  formulated  and  adopted  a  Constitution  as  the  basis 
of  a  popular  government.  The  constitution  was  mere  paper. 
It  was  taken  from  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  that 
of  Mexico  and  that  of  the  Argentine  Republic.  It  had  no  life, 
for  it  was  never  at  any  time  put  in  force.  The  actual  govern- 
ment was  despotic  and  oppressive  to  even  a  greater  degree 
than  the  Spanish  Government  ever  had  been,  and  resistance  to 
its  authority,  caused  by  its  dishonesty  and  oppressive  meas- 
ures in  the  provinces  in  which  it  had  authority,  was  frequent 
and  disturbing. 

The  adoption  of  the  constitution  at  Malalos  was  not  indic- 
ative of  the  then  capacity  of  the  people  to  maintain  popular 
self-government.  It  represented  only  an  academic  aspiration 
by  the  drafters.  The  result  was  mere  committee  work,  with- 
out the  slightest  evidence  of  the  practical  o-perativeness  of  the 
instrument  from  previous  actual  experience  in  government 
by  the  people.  The  only  real  government  which  existed  under 
AGUINALDO  was  that  of  the  one-man  power,  arbitrary  and  in- 
considerate of  the  people.  With  these  facts  before  the  United 


States,  I  submit  that  there  was  no  escape  from  the  dilemma 
except  the  acceptance  of  a  transfer  of  the  sovereignty  of  Spain 
and  the  assumption  of  political  control  over  the  Filipino  peo- 
ple, until  by  proper  measures  and  patient  governmental  train- 
ing and  experience  they  could  be  given  self-governing  ca- 
pacity. 

Concerning  the  objection  that  this  is  a  new  business  for  the 
United  States,  which  will  have  a  demoralizing  effect  upon  the 
nation,  I  think  no  one  is  able  to  point  out  any  injury  which  has 
thus  far  resulted  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  except  the 
expense  attendant  upon  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order  in 
the  Islands  during  the  insurrection,  and  the  regrettable  loss  of 
life  which  occurred.  Certainly  no  one  thus  far  can  show  the 
baleful  effects  of  that  dreadful  spirit  of  greed  which  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  policy  are  so  prone  to  see  in  everything  done  with 
respect  to  the  Philippines.  I  challenge  them  to  point  out  in 
anything  which  has  been  done  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  either 
immediately  under  the  government  there  established,  or  by 
the  United  States,  which  savors  in  the  least  of  a  selfish  use  of 
those  Islands  for  the  benefit,  either  of  the  individuals  in  the 
United  States  or  of  the  Government  itself.  The  only  thing 
which  can  be  seriously  made  the  basis  of  such  a  charge  was 
the  attempt  during  the  present  session  of  Congress  to  put  in 
force  the  coastwise  trading  laws  for  the  benefit  of  the  shipping 
of  the  United  States  in  respect  to  the  trans-oceanic  trade  be- 
tween the  Islands  and  the  United  States,  and  that  by  Act  of 
Congress  has  now  been  postponed  for  two  years  longer. 
There  has  been  a  rebate  provided  of  the  export  duty  on  hemp 
imported  directly  from  the  Islands  to  the  United  States.  This 
has  not  affected  injuriously  the  trade  of  the  Islands,  because 
the  demand  for  hemp  is  so  great  that  the  Islands  have  a  mo- 
nopoly in  respect  to  it.  There  has  unexpectedly  been  caused 
by  the  rebate  a  reduction  of  the  income  in  the  Islands  of  about 
$250,000,  because  the  equivalent  which  was  provided  as  a 
counter  benefit,  to  wit,  the  duties  to  be  collected  on  imports 
from  the  Islands  into  the  United  States,  has  not  equalled  the 
aggregate  rebate  on  the  hemp.  This,  however,  was  a  miscal- 
culation by  the  legislators  that  was  pardonable  and  can  easily 
be  rectified.  In  every  other  respect  the  legislation  which  has 
been  enacted  has  been  in  favor  of  the  Islands,  including  a  gift 


\ 


of  three  millions  of  dollars  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  distress 
there.  The  attitude  of  those  who  support  the  Government  in 
its  policy  is  altruistic.  It  is  of  one  who  out  of  a  feeling-  friend- 
ly to  the  Filipinos  would  sacrifice  much  to  accomplsh  the  pur- 
poses of  the  Administration  there.  It  is  a  feeling  which  does 
the  nation  credit,  and  a  feeling  that  a  nation  of  the  wealth  and 
power  that  this  nation  has,  may  well  afford  to  encourage. 

General  denunciation  of  the  Government's  policy  as  one  of 
the  suppression  of  freedom  and  an  attack  upon  liberty  has  ren- 
dered uneasy  many  of  our  people,  but  the  charge  is  wholly  un- 
founded. There  has  been  established  in  the  islands  a  govern- 
ment of  law  and  order  in  which  the  administration  of  justice 
is  quite  as  good  as  it  is  in  half  the  States  of  the  Union.  It  has 
secured  to  every  man,  woman  and  child  among  the  Christian 
Filipinos  all  the  rights  contained  in  the  bill  of  rights  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  except  the  rght  to  bear 
arms  and  the  right  to  trial  by  jury.  The  right  to  bear  arms  is 
one  that  might  very  well  be  restricted  in  the  United  States. 
[Laughter  and  applause.]  The  freedom  with  which  firearms 
are  sold,  the  unlicensed  character  of  the  business,  will  readily 
account  for  many  of  the  homicides  which  disgrace  the  criminal 
annals  of  our  country.  The  right  of  trial  by  jury  is  one  which 
the  people  of  the  islands  do  not  understand,  and  which  it  is 
wise  to  postpone  the  exercise  of  until  they  who  are  to  consti- 
tute the  jury  shall  be  better  qualified  to  exercise  the  function 
of  administering  justice.  As  it  is  to-day  in  the  Islands  no  man 
need  be  convicted  of  a  crime  except  by  the  judgment  of  a 
judge  of  first  instance,  concurred  in  by  a  majority  of  the  seven 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The  appeal  on  the  facts  and 
law  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Islands,  which  consists  of 
three  Filipinos  and  four  Americans,  certainly  offers  sufficient 
security  against  mistakes  or  prejudices  of  one  judge.  All  the 
substantial  civil  rights  then  are  secured  to  the  Philippine  peo- 
ple. They  do  not  themselves  exercise  complete  political  con- 
trol, but  that  is  a  very  different  thing  from  civil  liberty.  Wo- 
men and  children,  and  other  non-voters  in  this  country,  have 
the  civil  liberty  secured  by  the  Constitution,  but  do  not  exer- 
cise political  control.  If  we  abandoned  the  Islands  we  should 
be  turning  their  political  control  over  to  the  violent  and  the 
turbulent,  and  the  agitators  and  civil  liberty  would  at  once 


cease  to  exist  there.  The  great  difficulty  that  we  have  now  in 
making  our  grant  of  civil  liberty  useful  to  the  inhabitants  is 
their  failure  to  understand  what  their  rights  are  and  their  in- 
capacity to  maintain  them.  I  remember  one  morning,  early  in 
my  experience  in  the  Philippines,  I  was  visited  by  an  elderly 
Tagalo  who  spoke  no  Spansh,  but  who  presented  a  petition, 
written  for  him  by  some  one  else,  in  Spanish,  in  which  he  set 
forth  that  his  son  had  been  arrested  for  a  crime  under  the 
Spanish  regime,  had  been  held  for  six  years  without  trial,  and 
was  still  in  Bilibid  prison.  Calling  on  me  at  the  same  time 
was  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  the  Islands,  one  of  the  three 
persons  who  had  drawn  up  the  constitution  adopted  at  Malo- 
los,  which  has  attracted  so  much  admiration  from  our  anti- 
imperialistic  friends.  I  turned  the  petition  over  to  him  and 
asked  him  to  confer  with  the  old  man,  which  he  did.  He  said 
to  me,  "How  can  we  redress  this  grievance?"  I  suggested: 
''Under  an  order  of  General  OTIS  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  in 
force ;  you  ought  to  sue  out  such  a  writ."  He  asked  me  what 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was,  and  I  explained  it  to  him,  and  at 
his  request  drafted  a  petition  for  the  writ.  Taking  the  petition 
he  went  to  Bilibid  prison  and  found  that  there  were  ninety 
persons  in  prison  in  the  same  situation  as  that  of  the  son  of 
my  early  caller.  He  filed  a  petition  for  the  writ  in  each  of 
these  cases  and  succeeded  in  securing  the  release  of  all.  His 
success  in  the  matter  was  a  revelation  to  him,  as  it  was  to  the 
people  of  the  community,  in-  respect  to  what  was  practical  civil 
liberty  of  the  individual.  Yet  it  was  he  who  had  penned  the 
constitution  supposed  to  secure  such  liberties  to  his  fellow 
citizens  some  two  or  three  years  before.  My  experience  in  the 
Philippines,  and  that  of  others  who  have  been  there,  justify 
me  in  saying  that,  were  the  Americans  to  leave  the  Islands 
to  the  government  of  AGUINALDO  or  some  person  of  his  views, 
all  the  guaranties  of  civil  liberty  would  be  lost  in  the  effort  of 
the  executive  head  of  the  government  to  maintain  his  position 
against  hostile  cabals  and  conspiracies.  In  other  words  a  sur- 
render by  us  of  political  control  in  the  Islands,  as  they  are  at 
present  peopled,  means  the  suppression  of  civil  liberty.  Hence 
it  is  that  those  of  us  who  are  in  favor  of  only  the  gradual  ex- 
tension to  the  Filipinos  of  political  control,  retaining  a  guid- 
ance under  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  are  the  real 


defenders  and  protectors  of  the  liberties  of  the  Philippine  peo- 
ple, while  the  so-called  and  self-styled  "anti-imperialists"  who 
demand  an  immediate  surrender  of  the  Islands,  are,  in  effect, 
advocating  a  policy  which  makes  for  absolutism  and  tyranny, 
or  a  political  chaos,  which  is  even  wrorse  than  either,  and 
which  will  end  for  a  long  time  to  come  all  hope  of  the  liberty 
of  the  individual.  The  course  which  the  so-called  anti-im- 
perialists seek  is  the  easy  one.  The  course  which  we  have  on 
hand  is  a  difficult  one. 

If  we  pursue  the  policy  which  is  now  being  pursued  in  re- 
spect to  the  Islands,  the  policy  of  holding  the  Islands  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Filipinos,  and  of  doing  everything  we  can  to 
elevate  and  educate  the  people,  to  increase  their  prosperity, 
and  to  furnish  them  full  opportunity  for  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness, we  need  trouble  ourselves  little  about  the  alleged  viola- 
tion of  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  If 
that  instrument  is  to  be  so  construed  as  to  prevent  us  from 
taking  the  course  which  the  dilemma  already  presented  re- 
quired us  to  take,  then  the  history  of  the  American  Republic 
has  been  nothing  but  a  violation  of  the  principles  of  that  in- 
strument from  the  beginning.  Women  and  children  and 
slaves  were  not  permitted  to  exercise  any  political  control 
at  the  time  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed. 
Those  who  by  their  suffrages  had  all  the  political  control 
there  was  in  the  various  colonies  were,  in  many  instances,  in 
the  minority  of  male  citizens.  Every  property  qualification, 
every  educational  qualification  that  excluded  from  the  suffrage 
any  male  citizen  over  twenty-one,  violated  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  if  it  is  to  be  given  the  wide  construction  con- 
tended for  by  our  opponents.  When  THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  who 
penned  the  Declaration,  directed  the  purchase  of  Louisiana, 
the  French  residents  and  the  Spanish  residents  of  that  coun- 
try protested  against  the  transfer  by  XAPOLEON  to  the  United 
States  on  the  ground  that  it  was  made  without  their  consent, 
and  they  were  thereby  converted  into  subjects  of  a  sovereign 
to  whom  they  had  willingly  sworn  allegiance.  When  we  took 
in  New-Mexico  and  Arizona  from  old  Mexico  we  agreed  that 
we  would  ultimately  give  them  State  government  and  inde- 
pendent control.  More  than  fifty  years  have  passed  since  that 
time  and  they  are  still  held  in  a  condition  of  dependence,  with- 


out  the  rights  of  sovereign  States.  For  fifty  years,  then,  we 
have  been  violating  the  declaration  with  respect  to  those  peo- 
ple. When  the  war  came  on,  and  the  issues  of  slavery  and 
State  rights  were  presented,  twenty  millions  of  people  coerced 
ten  millions  of  people  to  remain  in  the  government  from  the 
control  of  which  they  had  withdrawn  their  consent,  and  now 
to-day,  in  the  Southern  States,  by  grandfather's  clauses  and 
by  property  qualifications  and  by  educational  qualifications, 
the  white  people  are  seeking  to  exclude  from  the  ballot  those 
colored  voters  whom  they  deem  to  be  unfitted  to  exercise  po- 
litical control  in  their  respective  communities.  For  either  the 
Southerner  or  the  New-Englander  to  rest  his  opposition  to 
what  we  are  doing  in  the  Philippines  on  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  involves  an  inconsistency  that  robs  what  he 
says  of  weight.  In  every  instance  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  are  always 
qualified  by  the  statement  that  the  people  who  are  to  be  con- 
sulted with  respect  to  their  own  government  shall  have  suffi- 
cient capacity  to  govern  themselves  and  better  themselves  by 
such  self-government. 

In  the  Philippine  Islands  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  inhab- 
itants are  still  in  a  hopeless  condition  of  ignorance,  and  utterly 
unable  intelligently  to  wield  political  control.  They  are  sub- 
ject, like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  to  the  influence  of  the  moment, 
and  any  educated  Filipino  can  carry  them  in  one  direction  or 
another,  as  the  opportunity  and  the  occasion  shall  permit. 
The  ten  per  cent,  of  the  Filipinos  who  are  educated  have 
shown  by  what  they  have  done  and  what  they  have  aspired  to 
and  what  they  are,  that  they  may  be  taught  the  lesson  of  self- 
government,  and  that  their  fellows  by  further  education  may 
be  brought  up  to  a  condition  of  discriminating  intelligence 
which  shall  enable  them  to  make  a  forceful  and  useful  public 
opinion.  But  that  it  will  take  more  than  one  generation  to 
accomplish  this,  every  one  familiar  with  the  facts  must  con- 
cede. It  is  true  that  the  marvelous  development  of  the  Japan- 
ese in  the  last  fifty  years  may  justify  the  hope  that  the  period 
will  be  shorter  than  I  have  stated,  but  it  is  to  be  noted  with 
the  Japanese;  first,  that  they  are  a  more  industrious  people 
and  a  more  thrifty  people  than  the  Filipinos ;  and  second,  that 
they  have  always  had  an  independent  and  natural  govern- 


10 

ment,  proceeding  from  the  feudal  system  and  the  continuance 
of  the  traditional  governmental  influence  of  the  imperia} 
household.  The  Spanish  regime  of  four  hundred  years 
stamped  out  all  tribal  relations  and  everything  akin  to  the 
feudal  allegiance  and  to  a  natural  government  among  the  Fili- 
pinos, and  there  is  nothing  but  the  dead-level  of  a  people 
whose  only  hope  is  education  up  to  popular  selfrgovernment 
under  the  guidance  of  some  power  which  meantime  shall  se- 
cure to  the  people  the  inestimable  benefits  of  civil  liberty. 

My  own  idea  of  the  mission  of  the  United  States  in  the  Phil- 
ippine Islands  is  that  it  ought  to  be  maintained  and  encour- 
aged by  the  people  of  the  United  States  without  regard  to  the 
question  of  its  cost  or  its  profitable  results  from  a  commercial 
or  financial  standpoint.  Opponents. of  the  policy  of  the  admin- 
istration strive  to  frighten  the  taxpayer  with  a  review  of  the 
cost,  which  they  say  the  Philippine  Islands  have  been  and 
will  prove  to  be  to  the  United  States.  I  am  not  familiar  with 
the  statistics,  but  it  is  possible  that  the  war  of  the  insurrection 
cost  the  United  States  about  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 
That  is  spent.  The  object  of  the  war  has  been  accomplished. 
Tranquility  and  good  order  prevail  in  the  Islands.  The  num- 
ber of  white  troops  in  the  Islands  has  been  reduced  from 
75,000  to  15,000  men.  The  army  of  the  United  States  numbers 
65,000.  In  any  event,  whether  we  have  the  Philippines  or  not, 
65,000  regular  soldiers  are  not  too  many  for  a  nation  of  eighty 
millions  of  people.  Therefore,  all  that  can  be  properly  charged 
to  the  Philippine  experiment  from  now  on,  is  the  additional 
cost  of  keeping  15,000  men  and  transporting  them  from  the 
United  States  to  the  Philippines  and  back  every  three  years, 
over  what  it  would  cost  to  keep  them  in  the  United  States  and 
transport  them  to  arrd  frofn  the  stations  in  the  United  States. 
This  is  a  comparatively  small  sum.  Then  it  is  said  that  our 
Navy  is  enlarged  on  account  of  the  Philippines.  I  do  not 
think  that  our  Navy  is  too  large,  whether  we  have  the  Philip- 
pines or  not.  Our  commerce  must  be  protected.  Our  nation 
must  occupy  a  dignified  position  before  the  other  nations  of 
the  world,  and  certain  it  is  that  the  protests  of  a  nation  with 
a  respectable  navy  are  more  respectfullly  listened  to  than 
when  it  has  only  a  few  wooden  hulks  to  represent  its  nation- 
ality. There  will  be  the  additional  cost  of  fortifying  Manila, 


11 

Iloilo,  Cebu  and  Subig  Bay  as  part  of  the  coast  line  of  the 
United  States.  Beyond  that  there  will  be  no  considerable 
additional  expenditure  out  of  the  United  States  Treasury. 

The  Islands  themselves  give  every  indication  of  furnishing 
revenue  sufficient  to  carry  out  the  plans  which  the  United 
States  may  properly  carry  out  in  the  material  and  intellectual 
development  of  the  country  and  its  people.  The  taxpaying 
capacity  of  the  country  is,  of  course,  determined  by  that  which 
it  produces  for  domestic  and  .foreign  use.  For  the  last  two 
or  three  years  the  wealth  produced  in  the  Islands  has  been 
seriously  impaired  and  reduced,  not  only  by  the  war  and  the 
cholera,  but  also  and  chiefly  by  the  loss  of  draft  animals, 
ninety  per  cent,  of  which  have  succumbed  to  the  rhinderpest. 
Agriculture  has  been  dependent  upon  such  animals  and  the 
recovery  from  this  blow  must  necessarily  be  slow.  Congress 
appropriated  three  millions  of  dollars  to  assist  the  Islands  in 
re-stocking  plantations,  but  the  enormous  difficulties  attend- 
ing the  importation  of  cattle  from  other  countries  which-  are 
able  to  live  in  the  Philippines  are  only  known  to  those  who 
have  attempted  it.  I  am  glad  to  say,  however,  that  our  scien- 
tists in  the  Islands  have  discovered  a  method  of  preventing 
a  recurrence  and  spread  of  the  disease  so  that  when  the  plan- 
tations are  re-stocked  rhinderpest  will  have  no  terrors  for  the 
farmers.  With  normal  conditions  in  agriculture,  when  the 
cattle  shall  have  been  restored  by  breeding  and  otherwise  to 
their  usual  number,  the  Islands  will  always  be  self-support- 
ing, and  will,  doubtless,  furnish  a  surplus  of  revenue  with 
which  to  meet  the  demands  for  improvements  which  present 
themselves  in  every  part  of  the  Islands. 

The  Philippine  Archipelago  is  the  only  country  in  which  can 
be  produced  what  is  known  as  Manila  hemp,  or  what  is  called 
in  the  Spanish  language  "abaca,"  This  is  a  fibre  of  enormous 
strength,  of  from  six  to  fifteen  feet  in  length,  which  is  stripped 
from  the  stalk  of  a  banana  plant,  not  the  ordinary  banana 
plant,  but  a  plant  of  the  same  family  which  does  not  produce 
fruit.  The  leaf  is  slightly  different  from  that  of  the  fruit 
banana,  though  one  may  easily  be  mistaken  for  the  other. 
The  plant  grows  on  the  side  hills.  For  the  first  two  years  it 
needs  the  shade  from  the  tropical  sun  and  s.ome  cultivation 
around  the  foot  of  the  stalk.  After  two  years  the  stalk  is 


12 

strong-  enough  to  afford  the  fibre  of  commerce,  and  though 
cut  down  will  reproduce  itself  each  year  for  six  or  seven 
years,  and  this  with  very  little  cultivation.  The  chief  labor 
in  the  production  of  the  fibre  is  that  of  stripping  the  fibre  of 
the  pith  of  the  plant.  It  is  done  by  pulling  or  drawing  it 
under  a  knife  edge.  If  the  fibre  be  drawn  under  a  serrated 
knife  edge  the  work  is  very  much  easier  than  if  drawn  under 
a  straight  edge,  but  the  fibre  is  not  so  clean  and  its  value  and 
quality  are  much  reduced.  The  tremendous  increase  in  the 
demand  for  Manila  hemp  has  made  profitable  the  production 
of  the  cheaper  and  poorer  qualities.  Women  and  children 
are  able  to  draw  the  hemp  with  a  serrated  knife,  while  only 
the  stronger  adults  are  able  to  draw  and.  clean  properly  the 
finer  fibre.  Many  machines  have  been  invented  for  the  pur- 
pose of  drawing  the  hemp,  but  in  none  of  them  as  yet  has  the 
hemp  producer  been  able  to  secure  a  result  which  justifies 
their  use  commercially.  They  either  break  the  fibre  or  they 
discolor  it.  There  is  the  opportunity  for  an  invention  which 
will  revolutionize  the  hemp  business  in  the  Philippines  as 
completely  as  the  cotton  gin  revolutionized  the  production 
and  preparation  of  cotton  in  the  South.  Of  the  forty-one 
provinces  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  at  least  fifteen  now  pro- 
duce commercial  quantities  of  hemp.  To-day,  owing  to  the 
insufficient  means  of  communication  and  transportation,  many 
fields  of  hemp  are  allowed  to  rot  and  are  not  stripped  or  used. 
In  many  of  the  provinces  there  is  wild  hemp  which  is  not  so 
good  in  texture  and  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  replace 
by  cultivated  plants  were  the  opportunity  offered  to  put  it  on 
the  market.  From  experiments  by  our  Agricultural  Bureau, 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  number  of  provinces  in  which  hemp 
could  be  raised  might  be  doubled.  The  demand  for  hemp  is 
so  great  that  while  an  increase  in  its  production  might  reduce 
the  price,  the  total  product  would  far  exceed  in  value  that 
which  the  statistics  now  show. 

Many  parts  of  the  Islands  are  very  rich  in  cocoanuts.  The 
cocoanut  grove  is  planted  two  hundred  to  a  hectare,  that  is 
two  hundred  to  two  and  a  half  acres.  It  takes  four  or  five 
years  for  cocoanut  trees  to  bear.  After  that  they  will  bear 
for  a  hundred  years  and  a  lowr  price  per  tree  for  annual  rent  is 
one  dollar,  Mexican,  or  forty  dollars,  gold,  a  year  an  acre.  In 


13 

the  province  of  Laguna  within  the  last  two  years,  since  the 
war  was  over,  there  have  been  planted  more  than  five  times 
the  number  of  trees  which  were  there  before.  There  is  a  con- 
stant market  for  copra,  which  is  the  dried  meat  of  the  cocoa- 
nut,  and  the  price  is  rising.  Since  the  demand  for  hemp  and 
cocoanuts  have  increased  so  largely  planters  have  abandoned 
the  raising  of  rice,  preferring  to  buy  their  food  out  of  the  profit 
of  the  hemp  or  cocoanut  industry.  Therefore,  for  ten  or  fif- 
teen years  it  has  been  the  habit  of  the  Islands  to  import  rice, 
although  there  are  no  islands  where  rice  will  grow  to  better 
advantage  than  in  the  Philippines.  The  amount  of  importa- 
tion, however,  was  comparatively  small  until  the  destruction 
of  the  draft  cattle,  three  years  ago,  which  reduced  the  actual 
amount  of  rice  production  in  the  Islands  far  below  what  was 
necessary  to  feed  the  people,  and  during  the  last  year  about 
$12,000,000,  gold,  had  to  be  expended  in  importing  rice  from 
French  China. 

The  sugar  and  tobacco  industries  in  the  Islands  are  capable 
of  a  considerable  increase.  The  Island  of  'Negros  contains 
sugar  land  as  rich  as  any  in  the  world,  and  the  provinces  of 
Cagayan,  Isabela  and  Union,  contain  tobacco  lands  which, 
next  to  Cuba,  produce  the  best  tobacco  in  the  world,  but  the 
trouble  is  that  the  markets  for  such  sugar  and  tobacco  have 
been  by  tariffs  imposed  in  various  countries  very  much  re- 
duced. Should  the  markets  of -the  United  States  be  opened  to 
the  Philippines,  it  is  certain  that  both  the  sugar  and  the  to- 
bacoc  industry  would  become  thriving,  and  although  the  total 
amount  of  the  product  in  each  would  probably  not  effect  the 
American  market  at  all,  so  extensive  is  the  demand  here  for 
both  tobacco  and  sugar,  it  would  mean  the  difference  between 
poverty  and  prosperity  in  the  Islands.  I  know  that  the  re- 
duction of  the  tariff  for  this  purpose  is  much  opposed  by  the 
interests  which  represent  beet  sugar  and  tobacco,  but  I  believe 
that  a  great  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  in 
favor  of  opening  the  markets  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  con- 
scious that  it  will  not  destroy  either  the  beet  sugar  or  the 
tobacco  industry  of  this  country,  and  feeling  that  as  long  as 
we  maintain  the  association  which  we  now  have  with  the 
Philippine  Islands,  it  is  our  duty  to  give  them  the  benefit  of 
the  markets  of  the  United  States  and  bring  them  as  close  to 


14 

our  people  and  our  trade  as  possible.  Nothing-  else  will  justify 
the  application  of  the  coastwise  trading  laws  to  the  trans- 
oceanic trade  between  the  United  States  and  the  Philippine 
Islands,  but  if  they  are  invited  to  partake  of  the  benefits  of 
the  protection  theory,  they  may  well  be  subjected  to  the  rule 
that  as  between  the  United  States  and  themselves  the  pro- 
ducts are  to  be  transferred  in  American  bottoms. 

Another  immense  source  of  wealth  in  the  Islands  is  the  al- 
most inexhaustible  supply  of  the  m'ost  beautiful  woods  of 
rubber  and  of  the  most  valuable  gums.  These  sources  of 
wealth  are  hardly  developed. 

And  now  what  as  to  the  existing-  trade  between  the  United 
States  and  the  Philippines.  It  is  still  quite  small,  not  exceed- 
ing five  millions  in  any  one  year  of  merchandise  transferred 
from  the  United  States  to  the  Philippines,  but  increasing 
largely  in  the  products  transferred  from  the  Philippines  to  the 
United  States.  The  latter  increase,  however,  is  not  a  natural 
one.  It  is  brought  about  by  Congressional  legislation  already 
mentioned,  which  confers  the  benefit  of  $7.40  a  ton  rebate  from 
export  tax  upon  all  hemp  transported  directly  from  the  Philip- 
pines to  the  United  States.  The  total  business  done  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Philippines  is  something  like  seven- 
teen millions.  With  the  restoration  of  normal  conditions  in 
the  Islands,  with  the  construction  of  railways  and  other  ma- 
terial development,  then  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  trade  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  the  Islands  would  be  trebled  in 
the  course  of  five  years. 

The  conditions  with  respect  to  the  business  of  the  United 
States  merchants  in  the  Islands  to-day  is  unfortunate,  and 
its  cause  can  easily  be  traced.  The  Government  of  the  United 
States  went  into  the  Islands  under  a  distinct  promise  that  it 
would  govern  the  Philippines  for  the  benefit  of  the  Filipinos ; 
that .  it  would  extend  self-government  to1  the  Filipinos  as 
rapidly  as  they  showed  themselves  fit  for  it,  and  that  as  many 
Filipinos  as  possible  would  be  used  in  the  personnel  of  the 
Government.  This  has  always  been  the  attitude  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  never,  so  far  as  I  know  (has  there  been  a  single 
step  of  departure  from  it.  It  was  the  attitude  declared  before 
the  war  of  insurrection  began,  while  it  was  pending,  and  at 
its  close,  and  no  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  natives  has 


15 

varied  our  position  in  that  regard.  This  policy  did  not  meet, 
as  was  natural,  the  ready  assent  of  all  the  army  or  of  those 
persons  who  were  in  sympathy  with  the  army.  The  advent- 
uresome spirits  who  followed  the  army  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  a  business  in  its  wake  found  that  they  had  all 
that  they  could  do  to  supply  the  demand  made  by  the  army 
for  American  goods,  and  as  American  capital  came  in  driblets 
or  in  larger  sums,  it  was  turned  into  the  business  of  supplying 
the  army  with  those  things  which  the  Government  did  not 
supply.  Four  or  five  trading  companies  were  thus  organized, 
embracing  substantially  all  the  American  enterprise  that  has 
appeared  in  the  Islands  during  the  first  three  or  four  years 
of  American  occupation.  American  merchants  thus  situated 
easily  caught  the  feeling  of  hostility  and  contempt  felt  by 
many  of  the  soldiers  for  the  Filipinos,  and  were  most  emphatic 
in  condemning  the  policy  of  the  Government  in  attempting 
to  attract  the  Filipinos  and  make  them  so  far  as  might  be  a 
part  of  the  new  civil  order.  The  American  newspapers  which 
were  established,  readily  took  the  tone  of  their  advertisers 
and  their  subscribers,  and  hence  it  is  that  the  American  com- 
munity in  the  Philippines  to-day  is  largely  an  anti-Filipino 
community.  The  75,000  soldiers  whose  demands  for  supplies 
made  their  business  so  profitable,  have  now  been  reduced  to 
15,000,  and  the  market  which  made  the  American  merchants 
for  a  time  independent  of  the  Filipinos,  has  now  almost  en- 
tirely disappeared.  The  condemnation  by  such  merchants  of 
the  Civil  Government  continues,  and  they  do>  not  hesitate  to 
make  the  Government  the  scapegoat  for  the  failure  of  business 
to  improve.  The  fact  is  that  their  customers  have  gone  back 
to  the  United  States  and  that  their  attitude  towards  the  Fili- 
pinos is  such  that  the  Filipinos  are  not  disposed  to- patronize 
them.  This  is  unfortunate,  and  there  must  come  into  the 
Islands  a  new  set  of  merchants  who  shall  view  the  situation 
from  an  entirely  different  standpoint.  There  are  7,600,000 
Filipinos.  Of  these,  the  7,000,000  Christian  Filipinos  are  imi- 
tative, anxious  for  new  ideas,  willing  to  accept  them,  willing 
to  follow. American  styles,  American  sports,  American  dress 
and  American  customs.  A  large  amount  of  cotton  goods  is 
imported  into  the  Islands  each  year,  but  this  is  nearly  all  from 
England  and  Germany.  There  is  no  reason  why  these  cotton 


16 

goods  should  not  come  from  America,  except  the  fact  that 
there  are  no  American  houses  in  the  Islands  that  have  devoted 
their  attention  to  winning  Filipino  trade.  I  am  not  a  business 
man,  but  I  know  enough  to  know  that  it  is  not  the  best  way  to 
attract  custom  from  an  alien  people  to  call  them  names,  to 
make  fun  of  them,  and  to  decry  every  effort  towards  their 
advancement  and  development.  In  other  words,  the  American 
merchants  in  the  Philippines  have  gotten  off  on  the  wrong- 
foot.  There  should  be  a  radical  change. 

There  are  a  few  projected  railroad  lines  in  the  Philippines 
which  it  would  be  possible  to  induce  capital  to  build  without 
a  guaranty  of  income,  but  it  is  wiser,  it  seems  to  the  commis- 
sion, to  attempt  to  introduce  a  general  system  of  railways  than 
to  have  a  link  built  here  and  a  link  built  there  and  to  await 
the  process  of  time  before  trunk  lines  shall  be  established. 
For  instance,  it  is  quite  probable  that  a  short  line  of  forty  or 
fifty  miles  would  be  constructed  without  a  guaranty  in  the 
Province  of  Legaspi,  where  is  the  rich  hemp  business  and 
where  it  has  been  customary  during  the  last  two  or  three  hemp 
seasons  to  pay  forty  dollars  Mexican  a  day  for  a  caribou  cart; 
so,  perhaps  it  would  be  possible  to  secure  the  construction 
of  a  line  without  a  guaranty  from  Manila  south  to  Batangas, 
though  of  this  I  am  not  certain.  With  the  hope,  however,  of 
bringing  capital  in  considerable  amount  to  the  Islands,  a  bill 
has  been  prepared,  which  has  passed  the  House,  authorizing 
the  Philippine  Government  to  grant  franchises  for  the  con- 
struction of  railways  with  a  guaranty  of  income  of  not  more 
than  five  per  cent,  on  the  amount  actually  invested  for  not 
exceeding  thirty  years.  In  most  cases  a  guaranty  of  a  less 
percentage  would  be  sufficient,  but  my  impression  is  that  with 
respect  to  the  main  trunk  line  from  Aparri  to  Manila,  the 
difficulties  of  construction  and  the  delay  in  securing  a  profit- 
able business  would  probably  require  an  assurance  of  five  per 
cent,  dividends.  The  opposition  of  those  who  oppose  the  in- 
vestment of  any  American  capital  in  the  Islands  which  shall 
furnish  a  motive  for  a  longer  association  between  the  two 
countries  than  is  absolutely  necessary,  may  postpone  the 
passage  of  the  bill  until  the  next  session  of  Congress.  I  shall 
deeply  regret  the  delay,  but  I  am  not  discouraged,  for  as  long 
as  I  continue  in  my  present  position  I  expect  to  press  the 


17 

legitimate  claims  of  the  Philippine  Islands  upon  a  just  and 
generous  Government  for  such  authority  in  the  local  govern- 
ment as  will  permit  a  proper  development  of  the  material  re- 
sources of  the  Islands;  and  the  delay  in  legislation,  which  is 
incident,  not  to  the  opposition  of  a  majority  but  to  the  oppo- 
sition of  a  small  minority,  while  it  is  apt  to  try  one's  patience, 
ought  nevertheless  not  to  discourage. 

I  come  now  to  the  question  of  labor,  which  has  been  made 
the  basis  for  the  most  discouraging  accounts  of  conditions  in 
the  Philippine  Islands.  The  Filipino  is  a  tropical  laborer.  In 
times  past  a  large  amount  of  rice  has  been  raised  in  the 
Islands,  a  large  amount  of  tobacco,  a  large  amount  of  sugar, 
and  a  large  amount  of  hemp,  and  they  all  involve,  as  a  material 
part  of  the  cost  of  their  production,  the  labor  of  the  natives. 
The  Chinamen,  who  have  been  said  by  mistaken  persons  to 
number  a  million  or  a  million  and  a  half  in  the  Islands,  in 
fact  do  not  number  100,000,  and  none  of  them  do  any  agri- 
cultural work  of  any  kind  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  The 
Filipino  is  naturally  an  agriculturalist.  When  you  go  through 
his  village  in  the  middle  of  the  day  you  will  probably  see  him 
lounging  about  the  window  or  on  the  seat  in  front  of  his 
house,  and  you  will  ascribe  to  him  the  laziest  habits,  because 
you  do  not  know  that  he  has  been  up  at  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  has  worked  from  that  time  until  nine  or  ten  in 
the  fields,  and  that  he  will  begin  work  again  at  four  o'clock 
and  work  for  two  or  three  hours  until  sun  down  or  later.  The 
American  merchant  is  loud  in  his  denunciation  of  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  Filipino  laborer.  This  is  because  the  price  of 
labor  has  probably  doubled  since  the  Americans  went  there, 
and  he  has  heard  the  tale  of  how  cheap  labor  was  before  the 
Spanish  regime  ended.  He  also  compared  the  cost  of  labor  in 
the  Philippine  Islands  with  that  in  Hong1  Kong,  and  he  finds 
that  is  very  considerably  less  all  over  China.  I  am  not  con- 
tending that  the  labor  in  the  Philippines  is  as  good  as  Chinese 
labor,  for  that  labor  is  the  best  in  the  world,  probably,  when 
economy  in  wages  and  efficiency  in  product  are  considered, 
but  what  I  wish  to  dispute  is  that  the  labor  conditions  in  the 
Philippines  are  hopeless.  The  city  of  Manila  has  under  its 
control,-  and  in  its  employment,  about  3,000  laborers,  and  they 
are  paid  all  the  way  from  fifty  cents  Mexican  to  $1.25  Mexi- 


18 

can,  and  there  is  no  complaint  whatever  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities  that  their  work  is  not  properly  and  well  done.  The 
Quartermaster's  Department  of  the  army  has  about  the  same 
number,  and  their  reports  of  the  efficiency  of  Filipino  labor 
are  exceedingly  encouraging.  We  have  now  employed  really 
as  coolies  on  the  Benguet  Road  in  the  most  difficult  drilling 
and  construction  work  about  3,000  natives,  and  while  their 
efficiency  is  nothing  like  that  of  the  American,  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  work  in  proportion  to  the  pay.  they  probably 
get  through  about  as  much.  The  men  who  are  constructing 
the  harbor  works  at  Manila — The  Atlantic,  Pacific  &  Gulf 
Company — have  employed  upwards  of  800  to  1 ,000  Filipinos 
in  their  quarries.  At  first  they  found  it  very  difficult  to  secure 
workmen,  but  now  they  have  more  labor  than  they  need. 
They  use  about  eight  per  cent  of  white  foremen  and  the  rest 
natives.  They  give  to  the  natives  houses,  furnish  a  church, 
a  band,  a  cock  pit  and  a  school.  On  their  fiesta  days  they  give 
them  vacation.  They  have  less  desertions,  less  absenteeism, 
than  with  Americans.  These  experiments  only  show  that  the 
solution  of  the  labor  problem  in  the  Philippines  is  teaching 
the  Filipinos  how  to  work.  Sir  WILLIAM  VAN  HORNE  reports 
that  he  found  much  difficulty  originally  in  the  construction 
of  the  Cuban  railways  because  the  natives  were  not  acquainted 
with  how  the  work  should  be  done,  but  that  by  means  of 
white  foremen  they  were  easily  taught,  and  that  then  they 
made  good  laborers.  I  feel  sure  that  the  same  thing  will  prove 
to  be  true  of  the  Filipinos. 

There  is  doubtless  a  great  deal  of  mineral  wealth  in  the 
Islands,  but  it  will  only  be  available  after  transportation  shall 
have  been  introduced.  It  is  not  an  island  with  a  bonanza  mine 
in  it,  though  at  some  distant  day  such  a  vein  may  be  dis- 
covered there.  There  is  certainly  coal  in  the  Islands  in  con- 
siderable quantities.  There  is  now  between  the  islands  a  con- 
siderable inter-island  trade,  and  there  are  quite  a  large  number 
of  ships  engaged  therein.  Without  it  the  Islands  could  not 
live;  it  is  their  arterial  circulation.  The  present  system  might 
be  much  improved  by  introducing  American  generous  methods 
of  dealing  with  the  public.  About  two  and  a  half  millions  of 
capital  has  been  invested  in  a  street  railway  in  Manila,  which 
will  be  completed  next  Thanksgiving  Day.  This  will  certainly 


19 

change  one  of  the  annoying  and  expensive  features  of  Manila 
life,  and  will  give  to  the  residents  of  the  city  opportunity  to 
cut  down  their  present  expense  of  living,  at  least  twenty-five 
per  cent.  There  is  no  city  in  the  world  where  there  is  so 
much  traveling  done  in  carriages,  due  to  the  fact  that  people 
may  not  walk  about  safely  under  the  tropical  sun.  The 
presence  of  a  street  railway  will  do  away  with  the  necessity 
for  many  of  these  conveyances,  and  the  streets  will  be  less 
used  and  their  condition  much  improved. 

There  is  a  sufficient  continuous  fall  of  water  in  streams 
within  practicable  distance  of  Manila  to  furnish  electrical 
power  exceeding  fifteen  thousand  horse  power.  With  the 
high  price  of  coal  this  is  an  important  aid  to  manufacturers. 

The  English  houses  and  the  Spanish  houses  who  have  dealt 
in  the  export  trade  in  the  Islands  have  earned  large  profits 
during  the  occupancy  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  said  that  the  health  of  the  Islands  is  such  as  to  pre- 
clude Americans  from  going  there.  This  is  not  true.  The 
climate  does  prevent  one  from  going  out  into  the  sun  in  the 
middle  of  the  day  and  so  prevents  his  working  in  the  fields 
as  a  laboring  man,  but  it  is  entirely  possible  for  one  to  live 
in  the  Islands  for  years,  and  if- he  does  not  neglect  the  ordinary 
rules  of  hygiene  to  be  free  from  bad  health.  The  Province  of 
Benguet,  which  is  150  miles  from  Manila,  and  which  will  soon 
be  reached  by  a  railroad  and  an  electric  road  in  twelve  hours, 
offers  a  climate  quite  like  the  summer  climate  of  the  Adiron- 
dacks  or  of  Canada.  Under  the  land  regulations,  which  go 
into  force  at  the  time  of  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  a  sum- 
mer capital  is  to  be  established  at  Baguio,  and  town  lots  in  the 
same  place  will  be  offered  at  public  auction.  Americans  en- 
gaged in  business  may.  at  small  cost,  buy  lots  and  erect  houses 
and  live  there  as  many  months  of  the  year  as  they  choose, 
except  the  months  of  August  and  September,  which  are  usu- 
ally so  wet  as  to  make  it  unprofitable.  During  remaining 
months  of  the  year  the  climate  is  beautiful,  the  temperature 
going  down  as  low  as  35  degrees  FAHRENHEIT,  and  rarely  if 
ever  reaching  80  degrees. 

It  is  estimated  that  not  more  than  five  millions  of  acres  of 
land  are  owned  by  natives  in  the  Islands,  and  that  the  remain- 
der, sixty-five  millions,  is  owned  by  the  Government.  This 


20 

remainder  will  under  the  land  regulations  be  opened  for  settle- 
ment and  purchase  at  the  adjournment  of  the  present  session 
of  Congress.  There  is  every  prospect  that  the  land  will  be 
taken  up  by  both  Filipinos  and  Americans.  The  maximum 
limitation  for  purchase  *by  a  company  is  2,500  acres.  This 
limitation  is  much  too  low  for  the  cultivation  of  sugar,  but  is 
sufficiently  extensive  for  the  cultivation  of  other  products. 
There  is  a  provision  in  the  law  by  which  irrigation  companies 
may  own  stock  in  land  companies,  so  that  probably  the  limita- 
tion may  be  evaded  if  private  profit  requires.  The  future  of 
the  Philippine  Islands  of  course  it  would  be  dangerous  to 
prophesy  with  certainty,  but  with  a  change  in  the  hygienic 
conditions  that  surround  life,  due  to  an  effective  board  of 
health,  with  a  supply  of  pure  water  from  the  sinking  of  driven 
wells  all  over  the  country  which  the  pending  Bill  in  Congress 
will  encourage,  I  feel  sure  that  the  population  will  rapidly 
increase. 

We  hold  the  Philippines  for  the  benefit  of  Filipinos  and  we 
are  not  entitled  to  pass  a  single  act  or  approve  a  single  meas- 
ure that  has  not  that  as  its  chief  purpose.  But  it  so  happens, 
and  it  fortunately  so  happens,  that  generally  everything  we 
do  for  the  benefit  of  the  Filipinos  and  the  Philippines  will  only 
make  their  association  with  the  United  States  more  profitable 
to  the  Unted  States.  I  do  not  base  my  prayer  for  a  continu- 
ance of  the  present  policy  toward  the  Philippine  Islands  on 
selfish  grounds,  but  as  this  is  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and 
as  it  is  naturally  interested  in  the  possibilities  of  commerce 
in  these  distant  Islands,  I  have  felt  justified  in  referring  more, 
than  heretofore  to  the  industrial  conditions  existing  there 
and  the  possibility  of  improvement  and  the  increase  of  trade 
between  -the  United  States  and  the  Philippines. 

The  first  requisite  of  prosperity  in  the  Philippine  Islands 
is  tranquility,  and  this  should.be  evidenced  by  a  well  ordered 
government.  The'  Filipinos  must  be  taught  the  advantages 
of  such  a  government,  and  they  should  learn  from  the  govern- 
ment which  is  given  them  the  disadvantages  that  arise  to 
everybody  in  the  country  from  political  agitation  for  a  change 
in  the  form  of  government  in  the  immediate  future.  Hence  it 
is  that  I  have  ventured  to  oppose  with  all  the  argument  that 
I  could  bring  to  bear  the  petition  to  the  political  conventions 


21 

asking  that  independence  be  promised  to  the  Filipinos.  It 
is  not  that  I  am  opposed  to  independence  in  the  Islands, 
should  the  people  of  the  Philippines  desire  independence  when 
they  are  fitted  for  it,  but  it  is  that  the  great  present  need  in  the 
Islands  is  tranquility,  the  great  present  need  in  the  Islands 
is  the  building  up  of  a  permanent  well-ordered  government, 
the  great  present  need  in  the  Islands  is  trie  increase  of  the 
saving  remnant  of  conservative  Filipinos  whose  aid  in  uplift 
ing  and  maintaining  the  present  government  on  a  partly  popu^ 
lar  and  strictly  civil  liberty  basis,  shall  be  secured.  A  promise 
such  as  that  which  is  petitioned  for  cannot  but  introduce  at 
once  into  the  politics  of  the  Islands  the  issue  of  independence, 
of  present  fitness  for  self-government,  and  will  frighten  away 
from  the  support  of  the  present  government  the  conservative 
element  which  is  essential  to  its  success,  and  yet  which  is 
always  timid  lest  by  a  change  bringing  the  violent  and  the 
irreconcilable  to  the  front,  they  shall  suffer  by  reason  of  their 
prominence  in  aid  of  the  present  government.  The  promise 
to  give  independence  helps  no  one.  There  is  no  need  of  that 
promise  to  secure  tranquility  because  we  have  tranquility  in 
the  Islands.  It  is  certain  to  be  misunderstood  as  a  promise 
to  be  complied  with  in  the  present  generation,  and  if,  as  is 
probable,  the  people  shall  not  be  fitted  for  self-government 
in  the  present  or  the  next  generation,  then  the  failure  to  give 
it  will  be  regarded  as  a  breach.  Why  not  let  the  politics  of  the 
Islands  take  care  of  themselves?  Why  should  the  good  peo- 
ple who  signed  the  petition  intermeddle  with  something,  the 
effect  of  which  they  are  very  little  able  to  understand.  Why 
not  take  the  broader  policy,  which  is  that  of  doing  everything 
beneficial  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  of  giving  them  a  full 
market,  of  offering  them  an  opportunity  to  have  railroads  built 
extensively  through  the  Islands,  and  of  having  a  tranquility 
which  is  essential  to  the  development  of  their  business  and 
their  prosperity;  why  not  insist  on  the  spread  of  the  educa- 
tional system,  of  an  improvement  in  the  health  laws,  and  sub- 
ject everything  that  is  done  in  the  Islands  to  an  examination 
as  to  whether  it  is  beneficial  to  the  Filipino  people,  and  then 
when  all  has  been  done  for  the  Philippines  that  a  government 
can  do,  and  they  have  been  elevated  and  taught  the  dignity 
of  labor,  the  wisdom  of  civil  liberty  and  self-restraint  in  the 


political  control  indispensable  to  the  enjoyment  of  civil  liberty, 
when  they  have  learned  the  principles  of  successful  popular 
s'elf-government  from  a  gradually  enlarged  experience  therein, 
we  can  discuss  the  question  whether  independence  is  what 
they  desire  and  grant  it,  or  whether  they  prefer  the  retention 
of  a  closer  association  with  the  country  which,  by  its  guid- 
ance, has  unselfishly  led  them  on  to  better  conditions. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  there  remains  one  thing  to  say  which 
is  more  or  less  a  matter  of  business.  In  order  to  familiarize 
the  people  of  the  United  States  with  the  Philippine  Islands, 
and  in  order  to  bring  the  Filipinos  closer  to  the  United  States, 
the  commission  has  deemed  it  wise  to  expend  about  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  dollars  in  making  a  satisfactory  exhibit 
at  the  World's  Fair  at  St.  Louis.  In  making  the  ethnographi- 
cal exhibit,  the  collectors  have  brought  here  natives  of  the 
various  tribes  of  the  Islands.  Naturally,  as  an  exhibit,  they 
would  not  bring  the  civilized  tribes,  except  as  they  are  shown 
in  the  battalions  of  scouts  and  constabulary  which  are  here. 
The  educated,  the  cultured  and  the  refined  Filipinos  would,  of 
course,  not  appear  in  an  exhibit,  and  yet  the  attention  likely 
to  be  attracted  to  the  wild  tribes  may  blind  the  people  to  the 
fact  that  these  wild  tribes  do  not  correctly  represent  the  gene- 
ral average  of  civilization  in  the  Islands.  For  that  reason  the 
Commission  deems  it  proper  to  appropriate  a  considerable 
sum  of  money  to  bring  to  the  United  States  a  delegation  of 
from  forty  to  fifty  Filipinos  prominent  at  the  bar,  prominent 
in  business,  prominent  in  the  provinces,  prominent  in  litera- 
ture, in  order  that  by  going  about  the  country  and  the  differ- 
ent cities  they  may  become  acquainted  with  the  institutions 
and  appearances  of  this  country,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
business  and  prominent  men  of  the  cities  of  the  United  States 
may  have  acquaintance  with  the  best  elements  of  the  Filipinos. 
The  appropriation  is  not  large  enough  to  justify  such  exten- 
sive visiting  to  the  various  cities  as  we  should  like,  and  there- 
fore we  have  thought  it  wise  to  appeal  to  the  commercial 
bodies  of  each  city  to  assist  us  in  the  entertainment  of  these 
gentlemen  while  they  are  here.  I  venture  to  suggest,  there- 
fore, to  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  that  some  action  be  taken 
in  the  nature  of  the  appointment  of  a  Committee  to  confer  with 
Dr.  WILSON,  who  is  in  chargk  of  the  Philippine  Exhibit,  and 


also  in  charge  of  the  delegation  of  Filipinos,  and  to  care  for 
them  while  in  New-York.  I  am  sure  that  there  is  in  New- 
York,  as  there  is  elsewhere,  a  sufficient  interest  in  the  people 
of  those  far-distant  Islands  to  invoke  some  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  individuals  to  see  that  the  hospitality  of  the  City  of 
New- York  is  properly  extended  to  them.  The  first  virtue  of 
a  Filipino  city  or  village  is  hospitality,  and  should  any  of  your 
number  ever  visit  the  Philippines  and  become  acquainted  with 
the  Filipinos,  you  will  understand  why  it  is  that  those  of  us 
who  have  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  the  people  of  those 
Islands  are  so  anxious  that  the  Filipino  gentlemen  with  their 
standards  of  hospitality  shall  not  be  disappointed  in  what 
they  receive  here. 

I  thank  you,  gentlemen  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  and 
Mr.  Chairman,  for  your  attention.     [Great  applause.] 


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